HBO is planning a comedy series for this summer about a rising young movie star who is accompanied on his Hollywood adventures by his brother and a couple of friends from the old neighborhood in Queens. Mark Wahlberg is one of the executive producers of "Entourage" and will make a cameo appearance in the first episode, HBO said. Also lined up for cameos are Jessica Alba, Luke Wilson, Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman.

HBO is set to air "Looking for Fidel," filmmaker Oliver Stone's long-in-the-works documentary on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, on Wednesday. Actually, to be more accurate, "Looking for Fidel," is the second Castro documentary from Stone, although it will be the first to be seen by all but a few early festival attendees.

Tony Soprano may whack the networks this Sunday -- again. And like "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero before them, the victims seem resigned to their fate. As "The Sopranos" returns for its fifth season on HBO, there's a nagging question hanging over America's broadcast networks: What happened to Sundays? In a sign of larger changes shaking the television industry, the broadcasters are facing some huge problems on what was once their biggest night.

HBO's partnership with veteran producer Steven Bochco is breaking up. The pay cable network has announced it is not moving forward with Bochco's proposed "Marriage" series, a drama centering on a married New York City couple and set entirely in their bedroom. Executives at the network said they didn't feel the bedroom-only setting could be sustained for multiple episodes. Bochco, meanwhile, is developing something with which he's had much more success: a new police drama.

Tom Hanks and his producing partner, Gary Goetzman -- whose "Band of Brothers" followed the World War II European campaign through the eyes of a company of soldiers -- will re-team with director Steven Spielberg to create a 10-part miniseries about U.S. battles against the Japanese in the Pacific during that period, the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety reported Monday. Like the 2001 outing (which won six Emmys), it will air on HBO.

Home Box Office separated itself from the pack and raced away with the most nominations by far, including four out of 10 best-series contenders, as candidates for the 55th annual nighttime Emmy Awards were unveiled Thursday. Coupled with its longtime domination of TV movie categories, the pay channel's inroads in the series balloting led to a lopsided tally of 109 nominations, versus 77 for second-place NBC.

In an it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood moment, James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos" won the prize for lead actor in a drama series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, just days after filing a breach of contract suit against HBO. His lawyers might not want him talking about the suit, but he acknowledged it during his thank-yous.

In unscripted television shows, characters settle their differences in plain view, and the results, while often interesting to watch, are seldom flattering to anyone involved. The same could easily be said of this week's drama surrounding rights to televise the Emmy Awards, which followed a messy, fractious path to what most would agree was a fairly equitable and logical conclusion.